United Airlines appears to have set its sights on the B787 Dreamliner to replace its B767/B777 widebody fleet.
The US airline has converted seven of its eight remaining B787-8 orders to the extended B787-10 model to replace its B767-400ER and B777-200 aircraft, flightglobal.com reports.
The B787-10, which contains approximately 320 seats, nicely fills the gap between the 242-seater B767-400ER and the 348-seat B777-200. United currently has 16 B767-400ERs and 74 777-200s.
The aircraft conversion also means that United will only operate a fleet of 12 B787-8s once all aircraft of the type are delivered.
Per the flightglobal.com report, United has been quoted as saying: “The flexibility of our fleet plan allows us to make conversions like these that help us manage our capital expenditures and put the right aircraft in place for our network.”
The airline also has 26 B787-9s on order, the first of which will be delivered at the end of this month.
United recently announced that its second B787-9 Dreamliner route will be from Los Angeles to Shanghai Pudong airport (see news, June 17).
